


Jason Brown-Wisenbachfeld and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (and How it Got Better)

by SheWantsItAll



Series: First Grade Jason [1]
Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: Anxiety, Elementary School, F/M, Feelings, Good Parent Marvin (Falsettos), Good Parent Whizzer Brown, HIV/AIDS, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, M/M, Marvin Not Being an Asshole (Falsettos)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27165301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheWantsItAll/pseuds/SheWantsItAll
Summary: Jason has a hard time coping with the ramifications of Whizzer's hospital stay and diagnosis.Modern era featuring married Whizzer and Marvin and first grader Jason. Just go with it!
Relationships: Trina/Mendel Weisenbachfeld, Whizzer Brown/Marvin
Series: First Grade Jason [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995193
Comments: 22
Kudos: 55





	Jason Brown-Wisenbachfeld and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (and How it Got Better)

It had been three weeks since Whizzer got home from the hospital, and Jason still wasn't handling things well. He slept well enough on the weekends when he got to stay with Daddy and Papa, but when he was with Mom and Pop during the week he needed constant reassurance to fall asleep and almost never slept through the night. He had nightmares frequently and could never fall back asleep until he heard from Daddy and Papa that everything was okay. Sometimes he didn't hear from them until the next morning, and at that point it was time for school.

Going back to school had been difficult. Jason had missed a week of school during Papa’s brief hospital stay and the most stressful period of his recovery. Everyone had tried to get him to go back, but they had barely managed to convince him to leave Papa’s side, and when Mom and Daddy decided it would be best to maintain his normal routine the morning after Papa was admitted to the hospital, when they still had no idea what was happening, it had not gone well.

_ Jason had spent the morning at his desk, avoiding eye contact with his classmates and chewing on his already bitten fingernails, causing his cuticles to start to bleed. _

_ Mr. McKinley had left him alone while his other students did their morning work. Jason tended to want space when he was upset, and while the first grade teacher had received a note from his student's mom stating that he'd had a difficult and late night, to call if he needed to be picked up, he didn't have any details and wanted to give the kid a chance to calm down. After half an hour of Jason sitting in his chair with his needs drawn up to his chest and zipped into a too-big red hoodie, picking at his fingers and sniffling, Mr. McKinley knelt down beside his desk so that they would be at the same eye level. _

_ "Jason," he started in his most calming, collected teacher voice "Do you want to talk about what's got you so upset buddy?" _

_ Jason just curled up tighter, hiding his face in his knees as he started to whimper, he could feel his classmates staring at him. He hated it when they stared at him, it made his tummy hurt. _

_ "Dot, David, Angelina, why don't you all take your restroom break now?" Mr. McKinley asked, and though the other three members of Jason's group hesitated, continuing to stare at him, they eventually got up and left for their morning break. _

_ Almost immediately after the other students left their group of desks, Jason started to cry. He felt Mr. McKinley start to rub small circles on his back and managed to choke out that he wanted Papa. _

_ Jason frequently had a difficult time on Monday mornings when coming to school directly from his dad's apartment, but it was Thursday, so this behavior was out of the ordinary. He thought back to the note. "Jason, do you want me to call your mom for you?" Mr. McKinley wanted to know what was going on with his favorite student, of course, but knew better than to pry. The second he tried to get any information out of Jason, the boy would be completely unwilling to talk to him. _

_ Jason nodded, and then suddenly he felt like he couldn’t keep everything that had happened since he left school yesterday in anymore and he started to ramble, "P-Papa had to go to the hospital last night and we don't know what's wrong and he wouldn't even wake up to give me a hug and and and Daddy was crying and Momma and Pop made me go outside and sit with them in the waiting room and they wouldn't let me go back in and I don't know what's happening- they, they won't tell me what's going on and I wanna go home Mr. McKinley. Please let me go home. Pleasepleaseplease" he now had tears running down his pink cheeks. _

So, his parental unit decided that school wasn't exactly an option until they had answers for Jason and he felt more secure. Mr. McKinley was more than willing to send Jason his assignments and the following days found him sitting in a chair in the waiting room, and later curled into his papa's side, with a clipboard in hand practicing his handwriting and spelling words or math facts. He managed to stay on track with the rest of his classmates, despite everything that was happening. They had only stayed in the hospital for a couple of days, but Jason had been allowed to stay home from school for a full week. It still didn’t seem like enough time.

That had transpired nearly two weeks ago. Now, Jason was laying in bed, desperately trying to fall asleep. Daddy and Papa got him a special teddy bear to help him sleep at night. The bear was incredibly soft and wore an equally soft red jacket, similar to a much larger one that brought Jason so much comfort. When he would squeeze the bear's paw, it played a sound recording of them saying that they love him and everything was okay. Jason was smart enough to know that while everything had been okay when they recorded the message after Papa felt well enough to leave the house, and that didn't mean everything was okay now. Anything could have happened since they talked on the phone before he went to bed. Or Papa could have been lying when they talked on the phone. He could be sick. He could be in the hospital right now. He could be dead. 

Jason felt his heart speeding up. He was scared. He wanted Papa or Daddy or Momma or Pop, but he was afraid to get out of bed. Instead, he scrunched down all the way under the covers at the end of the bed and clutched his special bear close to his chest and squeezed it's paw, trying to take as much comfort as he could from the recording. It made him feel a tiny bit better, until he started thinking again. Jason tossed and turned the rest of the night, dozing off again around two in the morning, leaving him with not nearly enough sleep before it was time to get up for school the next morning. It was going to be a long day.

Jason was already having a bad morning when he walked in the front doors of his school. He had woken up feeling very anxious about Papa's health and when he called Daddy and Papa’s apartment before school started he received no answer.

He spent his ride to school begging his mom to take him back home, but she just sighed and told him that, "Jason, sweetie, Whizzer is fine. Marvin is taking good care of him. Just because you didn't get to talk to them this morning doesn't mean that something bad happened". Jason strongly disagreed. Not getting to talk to them did mean that something bad had happened, because he was in the dark, and that alone was bad.

Mom dropped him off and Jason shuffled into the school building, eyes glued to the floor. He didn't want to be there. He really, really wanted to be at home.

"Hey Jason! I think you're really going to like our project today!" Mr. McKinley said enthusiastically, getting out his keys to unlock the classroom door. Jason was the first student in his class to arrive that morning, which wasn't unusual. "We're mapping out Family trees and I made you an extra special paper with a spot for everyone!" 

This was why Mr. McKinley was Jason's favorite teacher. He didn't have a lot for comparison, but his kindergarten teacher had constantly devalued his family, and his special class teachers just weren't as sparkly and wonderful. Mr. McKinley was kind. He never asked too many questions, but he always gave Jason the chance to talk about what was happening with him. Best of all, he treated Jason's family just like he did his other student's families. He also had a tiny rainbow flag in his pencil cup and photo on his desk of himself and a man who looked remarkably like Papa. Jason suspected they were dating.

Jason risked a small smile "Thanks Mr. McKinley," he said quietly. He scurried into the classroom as quickly as he could. He took his chair down from his desk and started on his morning work assignment, hoping that he wouldn't have to answer any questions or talk to anyone if he kept his head down. He wasn't in the mood for people today.

The day went better than expected. Jason was still anxious about Papa not answering his calls, but the activities of the day kept him occupied. He practiced writing his Zs (and read his two favorite books, Rainbow Fish and Violet the Pilot from Mr. McKinley's shelf while his classmates finished or redid their Z worksheets) and worked on his special family tree. True to Mr. McKinley's word, it DID have a line and a spot for a drawing of Marvin, Trina, Whizzer, and Mendel, as well as his extended family attached to everyone except Marvin. Jason was thrilled. He worked happily until lunch time, almost all of his focus poured into his special project.

After lunch, though, things took a turn for the worst. Jason had finished his project and the other students in his group would  **not** stop talking. Now that he wasn't as busy, the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach had returned. He took a few deep breaths and counted to ten, and when he still didn't feel better, he put his head down on his desk and closed his eyes, trying to block out both the students in his group. Eventually his sleep deprived state, combined with Mr. McKinley reading a chapter of the class's current after lunch novel Charlotte's Web, lulled him to sleep.

_ "Mr. McKinley? Jason Brown-Wisenbachfeld needs to come to the main office to check out" Said the disembodied voice of the school secretary over the intercom system. _

_ Jason was confused. He wasn't supposed to go home early today. Papa was supposed to pick him up at the end of the day. He smiled a little bit. Maybe Papa had made a plan for them to start the weekend early. Maybe they were going to the park or go see a movie or just maybe they would go to the bookstore. Jason loved the bookstore. He packed his backpack up quickly, waved to Mr. McKinley and scampered out the door, walking as quickly as he could while still avoiding being reprimanded for running in the hall. He thought about the wonderful things that Papa probably had planned for them the rest of the day all the way to the office. That was the only reason he would be leaving early, right? _

_ Wrong. Jason arrived in the office, and there stood Mom, looking anxious in a way Jason hadn't seen since.. no. Mom hadn't looked that anxious since she had to tell him Papa had been taken to the hospital the first time. No. This couldn't be happening. No no no. _

_ "Jason sweetheart," she started, sounding stressed. And sad. "We need to get to the hospital. It's bad. They want to see you.. before..before it's too late" _

_ "They?" Jason asked. Everything was blurry, but he grabbed her hand and started pulling her to the door anyway.  _

_ "It's Whizzer and.." she hesitated, wincing "and Marvin. No one knows what happened. They're both sick. " Trina was visibly upset. The group had grown closer after everything had settled down. Marvin and Trina got along much better as friends than as a married couple and she spent time with Whizzer on a regular basis, all resentment forgotten. "Sweetheart it doesn't look good.." Jason pulled harder, dragging her towards the car. _

_ Soon enough they were at the hospital, walking towards the room that contained two of the people Jason loved the most in the world. As he approached the room he heard the sound of two heart monitors beeping weakly, almost in sync. _

_ Jason took quicker steps, spurred on by the tightness in his chest. Just as he attempted to turn the door knob, he heard the beeping turn into one long beep. Their hearts had stopped. The door was locked and wouldn't open no matter how hard he tried. Jason felt like the walls of the hall were closing in on him and then suddenly… _

Mr. McKinley was at a loss for what to do. He couldn't get Jason to lift his head off the desk, and his attempts to calm the boy down were ineffective at best and detrimental at worst. His heart broke for the kid. He didn't know what was going on, really. He gathered that the kid had probably had a nightmare, but that told him basically nothing. He didn't know how to help if he wouldn't talk to him. He had never seen Jason so outwardly distressed, not even the day he was sent to school while Whizzer was in the hospital. Okay. No. He could handle this. He could do this. Even when Jason was upset, Mr. McKinley could always get through to him. He hadn't failed yet.

It was nearly time for recess, so Mr. McKinley grabbed his phone and sent a quick sos to the teacher next door, asking her to go outside early and take his students with her class, explaining that he had a situation and would be with them soon. Moments (and several questions from Jason's classmates of Is Jason okay? Is he actually sad or is he faking? What's wrong with him? First graders were nothing if not curious) later, Mrs. Smith was at his classroom door, getting his students lined up and ready for recess.

Mr. McKinley sat down at the desk directly across from Jason's. His knees bumped the underside of the kid-sized desk and he leaned forward, putting a gentle hand on top of Jason's where it rested on the top of his own desk. He was still sobbing.

"Jason..kiddo your classmates are gone now. Do you think you can sit up and talk to me?" He asked quietly, keeping his voice as even as he could. 

Jason shook his head and pressed his face further into his arms, continuing to cry.

"Did you have a bad dream? You can tell me, I'll do whatever I can do to help make you feel better, you know I will" Mr. McKinley saw his students cry on a fairly regular basis. They missed their Grown-ups in the morning, they got into spats on the playground, they sometimes got incredibly frustrated when trying to learn tricky new topics, and then they would inevitably cry. First grade was tough, especially for his kiddos who hadn't gone to kindergarten. He always tried to do whatever he could to help his kids, but he had never been in this particular situation before.

Jason shook his head again and said... something. His speech was so garbled by the combination of crying and having his face hidden that Mr. McKinley had no idea what he had said.

Mr. McKinley took a deep breath. He stood up and moved to crouch beside Jason's chair, rubbing his back. "Kiddo I can't do anything to help if you don't talk to me."

Jason sat up and looked at him for a split second, eyes red and hair wild, before flinging himself at Mr. McKinley, shoulders shaking as he wrapped his arms around his teacher’s torso. He felt so overwhelmed. His chest ached and he felt like if he wasn't held he would explode. He was so afraid of the possibility that his dream hadn’t actually been a dream.

Mr. McKinley was less surprised than one might imagine. He was a frequent recipient of hugs, as six and seven year olds are remarkably clingy creatures. He hugged Jason tightly, making a conscious effort not to shush him. It was an almost instinctual reaction, but he had found that usually his students just needed to be heard and comforted. He hummed and rubbed his back and waited for Jason to tell him what he needed. He knew better than to push. 

Jason remained inconsolable. He sobbed into the shoulder of Mr. McKinley's sweater until he felt sick. He was desperate for Daddy and Papa to come get him but he couldn't manage to get the words out so he just cried and hoped that Mr. McKinley could fix it somehow.

Little did he know that the hand Mr. McKinley wasn’t using to rub his back was busy texting Marvin Brown, briefly explaining that Jason had had a bad dream, was very upset, and needed to be picked up as soon as possible. This wasn't exactly the typical procedure for contacting parents, but this wasn't exactly a typical situation.

Several minutes later there was a soft knock on the door and Mr. McKinley looked up to see Jason's dad through the window. He always kept his classroom door locked when his class was there, but he was thankful that Mrs. Smith had left it unlocked. He motioned for Marvin to come in. "Jason.. buddy look who's here" he said.

But Jason didn't look. He kept his face shoved firmly into the soft fabric of his teacher's sweater and shook his head. He imagined it was the nurse or the school psychologist or someone coming to take him out of the classroom and talk to him. He didn't want to talk to some random, annoying grown up.

Marvin's heart broke at the sight of his baby so upset. The last weeks had been difficult for everyone, and even though Jason had a solid (and larger than usual) support system, he had still struggled. Of course he had struggled. It was no secret that Whizzer was one of the people that Jason connected with the most, and with him out of commission, however briefly, and Marvin occupied with taking care of him, the kid had suffered, even with the support of his other parents and his godmothers. 

"Jaceybean," he said quietly, using a nickname that only he and Whizzer ever used. A nickname that their kiddo had earned through his serious jellybean obsession and never quite shaken.

Jason's head whipped up from Mr. McKinley's shoulder and he turned around quickly. His eyes widened, "D-Daddy!" he cried out, speaking clearly for the first time since he had woken up. He stumbled out of his chair and around Mr. McKinley, tripping over not only his backpack, but also his own feet before leaping into his daddy's arms. He tucked his face into his neck and instantly felt more secure as arms tightened around him.

Marvin felt tiny fingers digging into the back of his sweatshirt

and squeezed Jason a little bit tighter, knowing that the pressure often helped to calm him down. He rubbed his tiny clone's back gently. "You're safe, baby" he said, and started to rock them gently, swaying back and forth and whispering every comforting phrase that came to his mind. 

Marvin was often self conscious in his role as a father, especially in public. His own parents had never been very affectionate, and had at times bordered on neglectful. He had picked up most of his parenting skills from watching Trina, and because of this, he typically leaned more towards a more nurturing role than a "typical dad". Whatever a typical dad was.

His need to comfort Jason overwhelmed his insecurity and he continued to sway. He wasn't exactly in public, and if anyone was going to judge his parenting style, he had a feeling that Mr. McKinley would be close to the end of that list.

"Is.. Is Papa okay?" he heard Jason whisper, face still firmly hidden in his neck.

"Of course," he soothed. "He's out in the car waiting for us." Jason's breathing had started to return to normal, but Marvin knew he wouldn't relax completely until he had seen Whizzer for himself.

Mr. McKinley busied himself with packing Jason's belongings back into his backpack. He very carefully folded his family tree project and tucked it into his folder. He smiled a little bit as he listened to Marvin comforting his son. He didn't see his students' families very often, but watching Jason and his parents gave him so much hope for his own future. He zipped Jason's backpack and stood up and held the bag out to Marvin, slightly awkwardly, but with a warm smile on his face. He usually had time to prepare himself for parent interactions, but this one had been a surprise.

"Thank you for taking such good care of him," Marvin said, still swaying slightly and running his hand over Jason's back. He swung the backpack over his unoccupied shoulder. 

"I didn't mean to overstep, he was just so upset" Mr. McKinley said, apologizing preemptively, even though he had just been thanked. He couldn't seem to stop himself.

"You didn't at all. You're his favorite teacher, you know? He's just been having a rough time with everything. It's partly my fault.. it was a hard night last night and we missed calling him this morning before school..I should have se-"

Jason cut him off, tugging at the back of his hoodie and murmuring in a teeny tiny voice that he wanted Papa.

Marvin smiled. "Alright, alright. I see how it is," he gently teased, before turning back to Mr. McKinley "we had better get out there.. thank you again"

"No worries. Just.. doing my job," he smiled back, waving at Jason when Marvin headed out the door.

Whizzer sat in the back seat of his husband's car, waiting as patiently as he could possibly manage. Over the last two weeks, he had become accustomed to frantic calls from Jason in the middle of the night, but he never got used to how distressed he could become. He had seen the kid upset plenty of times before he had been hospitalized. On the fourth of July, when they had been in the grocery store or on the subway a bit too long. It was always because the world was just too much, rather than being directly  _ his fault _ . Whizzer had never seen him as upset as frequently as he had been the last few weeks.

He was.. exhausted. His hospital stay and diagnosis had been terrifying, and waiting for Marvin's test results had been even worse. Things had gone better than he expected, but they had both gone home with medication and plenty of worries. He had started his treatment before leaving the hospital and while the fever, headache, and night sweats had thankfully subsided, the fatigue, nausea, and chills remained, as side effects of his antiretroviral treatment. 

He pulled the blanket wrapped around his shoulders closer and shimmied down in the back seat a bit more. The most shallow part of his mind hoped that no one would see him wearing Marvin’s ratty sweatshirt and his own fluffy pajama pants, wrapped up in a blanket. He had attempted to smooth down his hair, but it still stuck out in several places. If anyone commented, he would lie and say that didn’t change before leaving because he wanted to get to Jason as quickly as possible. He  _ did  _ want to get to Jason as quickly as he could, but mostly he was too drained to get dressed. 

He saw his two favorite people emerge from the front door of the school and his heart sank. He knew, from reading the texts between Marvin and Jason's teacher that the kid was upset, but he had hoped it was a slight exaggeration. New teachers were sometimes prone to exaggeration. Judging from the look of concern on Marvin's face and the fact that he was carrying their son, Whizzer somehow doubted that it had been an exaggeration.

When they got close enough, he opened the door, shivering against the cold wind and reached out to take Jason. The handoff was slightly awkward, but they made it work, and soon he found himself with arms full of crying little boy. He wrapped his arms around Jason, holding him as close as he could and trying to convey as much love as he possibly could.

“P-Papa… Papa I was so scared,” he heard Jason whimper. Whizzer pulled him impossibly closer and tucked the blanket around both of them. 

“Everything’s alright now bean,” he murmured, starting to run long fingers through Jasons’s curly hair, making it even frizzier, “nothing’s going to hurt you. Me and Daddy will keep you safe.”

“Not if you’re.. gone.” 

Everything clicked into place for Whizzer. Jason’s bad dream hadn’t been about himself. It had been about him and Marvin. That’s why he was so distraught. “Jaceybean.. baby I know you're worried.. but you don't need to be scared about me or Daddy going anywhere. We're not going anywhere.” 

“But. But what if you have to go to the hospital again? What if you get sick..Papa..I-I don’t..you  _ can’t” _ Whizzer felt Jason’s breath start to pick up again and adjusted them so that he could look at his little face. 

“Breathe, sweet boy” he whispered, “I'm going to be alright... Auntie Charlotte and her doctor friends took really good care of me at the hospital and they got me some special medicine to help me feel better. The medicine is going to help us make sure that we don't ever have a repeat of what happened last month ever again.” He caught a glance of Marvin’s worried eyes watching them from the rearview mirror, “and they got special medicine for your daddy too, to keep him safe so that we don't ever have to worry about him getting sick that way.” 

“And.. you’re going to take it right?” the concern was still clear in Jason’s voice. He looked between the two of them and felt the pressure in his chest evaporate when it was confirmed that of course they would both be taking the medication as they were supposed to. 

~~~

Jason was finally content. He felt exhausted from all of the emotions of the day, but he was happy. Marvin and Whizzer had talked with Trina and they came to the decision that given the circumstances they would start their weekend with Jason early. Jason was perfectly happy with that. 

They spent the afternoon watching Finding Nemo, and he got to show them his family tree. They loved it, bragging on his handwriting and drawings in a way that made him feel warm and fuzzy inside. Papa helped him fill in a few empty blanks with distant family members who he had never met. Eventually, he was given a bubble bath and Daddy even made his most favorite dinner of dino nuggets and mac and cheese. 

Now, he was curled up in Papa's lap, face hidden in his shirt. One of his arms reached out from under the weighted blanket they were snuggled under and held onto Daddy's hand. He was safe and warm and he didn't have to worry about either of them because he knew they were alright. Everything would be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thanks for reading this odd little fic inspired mostly by my sweet little first grade students!
> 
> In order to avoid full time enrollment during the pandemic, where I couldn't have any in person experience with students, I have taken a job as a title 1 reading assistant and it's been the best decision I've ever made in my career/education path. 
> 
> ALSO. I did quite a bit of research into acute HIV infection, ART, and PReP, but I will admit it was all quite confusing. I wanted the details I included to be as accurate as possible, but with that being said, there's a reason there's not a ton of detail. I am much more familiar with Mr. McKinley's line of work than I am Dr. Charlotte's. If anything is glaringly wrong, please let me know and I would be more than happy to change it. 💖💖
> 
> As always, thank you for reading!


End file.
